Stained Glass Oshima

When I saw Tanis’ Oshima, I thought it was such a beautiful rendition of Brooklyn Tweed’s pattern that I jumped at the chance to buy some of her OOAK yarn in Stained Glass, and made myself one! Here are the specs:

Needles: This pattern calls for five (!) different needle sizes, and I used them as called for in the pattern, except I used US 10s instead of US 10 1/2s (I didn’t have a large enough circular in 10 1/2s and in any case, I felt that anything larger than US 10s would make the fabric too thin) – the result from these needle sizes is a very soft, drapey fabric, but I think it works well with this particular pattern.

Size: After much debate, I knit size 42″, which was a good call – you want a little room in this sweater, since the pattern calls for 4″+ of positive ease. Also, because the fabric drapes and clings, any smaller size would have been REALLY clingy on me.

As with all Brooklyn Tweed patterns, there are a lot of neat features; I confess that I skipped the tubular cast-on, but I did do the tubular cast-off for the cowl, which works well, and I really enjoyed the brioche stitch once I got the hang of it. For a sweater, this knit up quickly, although the 13″ of length on the cowl – all in brioche stitch – took a little time! The construction and seaming of the yoke and sleeves was a little different – as always with Brooklyn Tweed, I don’t think that Ive found any of their sweater patterns that has the same yoke / sleeve construction, which is nice for variety and learning new techniques.

In terms of fit, the body of the sweater is almost too short for me – I know that’s the design, but I don’t like a sweater that rides up too high when I raise my arms or move around. I initially thought about adding another 1″ to the bottom ribbing, especially when it didn’t really grow at all when I lightly blocked it (I only blocked the body – there was no reason to block the upper half, and besides, I didn’t want to pull at all on the sections that were brioche stitched). But, I decided that the shorter body balances out the huge cowl, so I’m going to see how it wears before messing with it at all. I think the cowl is beautiful, although I can’t really get its edges to lie flat along the neckline – maybe I bound off too tightly, even with the tubular cast-off? Regardless, I think it looks comfy and cozy, and I notice in the Ravelry pics that lots of other knitters have the same finished effect with their cowls.

I have to say that this is probably the softest sweater I’ve ever knit – I guess that’s not surprising, with the cashmere and silk content of the TFA yarns, but wow, it’s like throwing on a cuddly blanket and wearing it around all day! I’m going to “test wear” it today and see what I think of it – I notice that, as much as I might like a sweater when I’m standing stock-still and looking in a mirror, I don’t really know whether it’s an article of clothing that I’ll actually use on a regular basis until I see how it behaves when I’m moving, bending, running, and on the move in it.

2 comments on “Stained Glass Oshima”

Your sweater looks gorgeous! I know what you mean about wishing the length was longer, as it makes it easier to wear, but I think the length looks really nice – a little more polished. Now that you’ve had it completed for a few months (although many of them were summer months), did you find you wore this sweater often? I’m about halfway through the first sleeve of my Oshima using Anzula Squishy (superwash meriono/cashmere blend), and was looking to see the fit and drape of others knit in a similar fiber. If you don’t mind me asking, how many inches of ease did you allow? Thanks!

I still need some more opportunities to wear it before I decide how I feel about it – if the weather would ever get below 80 degrees here (in Oregon in October, who would have thought?!) I’m going to take it out for a few more “test drives.” The size I knit provided 3-4″ of positive ease. I’d love to see yours when it’s finished, Anzula Squishy is one of my absolute favorite yarns!